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EMIGRATION 




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OF 



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FREE AND EMANCIPATED NEGROES TO AFRICA. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 



LOUISIANA STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 



PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ON LAFAYETTE SQUARE, MARCH THE rth, 1830. AND 
REPEATED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SAME SOCIETY IN LYCEUM HALL, 
SUNDAY E^-EMNG, THE 19th DEC, 1862, BY 



REV. W. A. SCOTT, D. D 



) PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE LOUISIANA STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 



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NEW ORLEANS: 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE PICAYUNE. 
1853. 



' ^^^^^^t^^^^^t^^^gg^^lg^gg^^^^e^gg^^^ 




EMIGRATION 



OF 



FEEE AND EMANCIPATED NEGROES TO AFRICA. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 



LOUISIANA STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 



IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ON LAFAYETTE SQUARE, MARCH THE 7th, 1850, AND 

REPEATED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SAJIE SOCIETY IN LYCEUM HALL, 

SUNDAY E\T;NING, THE 19th DEC, 1853, BY 

REV. W>:^ ArSCOTT, D. D. 

u 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE LOUISIANA STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 



NEW ORLEANS: 

riJINTED AT THE OFFICII OF THE I'lCAVUNE. 
1S.J3. 



Er44s 

535 






AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE LOUISIANA STATE COLONIZATION 

SOCIETY, IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ON LAFAYETTE SQUARE, 

MARCH THE 17th, 1852, AND REPEATED AT THE REQUEST OF 

THE SAME SOCIETY IN LYCEUM HALL, SUNDAY 

EVENING. 19th DECEMBER, 1852, 

BY REV. W. A. SCOTT, D. D. 



It has become my duty, friends and fellow citizens, to address you 
this evening in behalf of the Emigration and Colonization of free 
people of color, on the shores of Africa. A cause second to none in 
this age of great and w^onderful events. Among other embarrass- 
ments under which I labor, one is, the difficulty of selecting from the 
many interesting aspects in which this cause may be viewed, those 
points that may be most appropriate and useful. Nothing new or 
original will be attempted, 1 do not deem it expedient or necessary, 
to go into any detail as to the origin of slavery, nor into any his- 
torical statement, concerning the origin and objects of the American 
Colonization Society. These are subjects with which you are al- 
ready familiar by means of public addresses, and of that still more 
mighty agent for diffusing intelligence — the public press. It is my 
purpose, therefore, to present a few thoughts on some of the blessings 
of colonizing free born and emanc'ifaled people of color from among our- 
selves, on the shores of Africa. And first as to ourselves, and the free 
people of color amongst us. 

In the East, and to some considerable degree every where, except 
where the Anglo-Saxon race prevails, there is little or no prejudice 
founded on the distinction of color. The avenues of preferment are 
open to all; and he, who is most skilful, industrious, persevering and 
accomplished in his business or profession, whatever his complexion 
may be, whether ruddy, pale, fair, brown or black, is most certain of 
success. 

But it is not so with us. It is no matter whether the prejudice that 
prevents the amalgamation of the Anglo-Saxon and African races, has 
arisen from the mere force of circumstances, or was implanted for 
wise and holy purposes by the Creator, at or before the dispersion 
at Babel, which is most probably. It is enough that it exists : and 
exists with such a resistless and pervading force, that an assimilation 
of the races, if it were even desirable, is absolutely impossible. 

The free black man with us, is neither a free man nor a slave. He 
is cut off from the protecting care which the interests, if not the hu- 
manity of the owner, extends to the slave ; and yet, he is subject to 



all the prejudices of color, and denied many of the privileges accord- 
ed to the most ignorant and depraved white person. To a great ex- 
tent, the free people of color in the United States are a sort of inter- 
mediate class, having no bonds of common interest, no ties of sympa- 
thy ; and are generally indolent, improvident and ignorant, and the 
consequence is, that collectively, they are the most depraved and un- 
happy race on the American Continent. 

The only hope of the free black man is his removal to another Con- 
tinent, beyond the barriers of those prejudices and circumstances that 
oppress him here, and to a soil and climate for which he is suited. 
It is impossible for him ever to be happy among the whites. The 
frequent conflicts between the free blacks and the whites, in our 
principal northern cities, and the exclusion of them, or attempts to ex- 
clude them from entering many of our free States, show that to them, 
on our soil, freedom carries no healing on its wings ; and liberty, that 
blesses all besides, has no blessings for them, and that the glorious 
flag that has animated the hearts of freeman on ?o many fields of bat- 
tle, and carried our commerce over the whole world, has nothing but 
stripes and imprisonment for them. 

Another part of their misery, is their subjection to a feeling of in- 
feriority. No man can flourish and grow in a state of conscious in- 
feriority, any more than a vegetable grows in the dark. But the black 
man cannot come out into the sunshine of heaven's equality, among 
white people. 

The free people of color are not at home amongst us. The All- 
wise Creator has placed upon the black man, the mark of separation. 
Man being gregarious and social in his habits, it was necessary for the 
subduing of the earth to the arts of peace, that men should be disso- 
ciated, segregated and driven out from their cradles. It is a bless- 
ing, therefore, that there are causes sufficient, to prevent the perfect 
assimilation of all the races into one. It is not one of the least indi- 
cations of divine goodness, that there is such a variety amongst the 
races of men, as to render their separation not only desirable but 
necessary, and at the same time, also, to fit them for different climates 
and pursuits, so that the whole earth may be the home of man, and 
made contributary to his welfare. 

The black man, socially and politically, can never mingle with the 
white man as his equal, in the same land. It is worse than visionary ; 
it is vain and mischievous to labor to bridge the gulf that the Almighty 
has made impassable. And I regard it, as a most wise and necessary 
provision in the Constitution of Liberia, that it forbids a white man 
to own a si'.igle foot of soil in that Republic. No dream of the Ara- 
bian Nights is more fruitless, than the attempt to make the white and 
the black man, stand upon the same platform of political and social 
equality. They cannot sit down together, as equals, on the same soil. 
The one or the other, like Pharaoh's lean kine, will devour the fat 
and well favored. The one must increase, while the other decreases. 
The only relation that can subsist, happily, and for the good of both. 



between the white and black man on this Continent, is that of master 
and slave. To make them live together as equals, is impossible. 

"Like cliffs that have been rent asunder, — 
A dreary sea now rolls between ; ' 

But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder 
.Shall ever do away, 1 wean 

The marks of that which once hath been." 

If the black man is released from involuntary servitude, he is still 
a slave amongst ns. There is not, really, a free black man, from 
Canada to California. Wherever he goes, he must carry with him the 
titles of his freedom — and if found without his manumission papers, 
he is cast into prison. Nay, he nmst produce the evidence and the 
seal of the very court in which the evidence of his freedom is recorded. 
And into many parts of our country, he is forbidden to enter at 
all. There is no place here for him to rest his foot, or for his chil- 
dren to rise to comfort and honor. There is no bright prospect before 
him — there is no clear sunshine of the present day, and there is no 
hope for the future ; and gloomy as are his personal jjrospects, the 
most withering, crushing, virtue-extinguishing of all that is before 
him, is the abscence of hope for Ms children after 1dm. To my mind, 
the bitterest portion in the cup of the poor *of Europe, is that they 
have no hope for their children. Parents might be content to be 
starving operatives, and even to perish without living out half their 
days, if their children could rise to anything better. But what hope 
is there that they, themselves or their children, can ever becolne any 
better off" than they are now % They are doomed to tread round and 
around in the mill of toil and burden-bearing, ignorance, stupidity, 
and hopeless suffering, and be the hewers of wood and drawers of 
water from father to son, and from age to age. And consequently, 
every stimulant to virtuous action, every motive to industrious habit 
is taken away. And just so it is, and so it will be with ihe so called 
iree people of color in the United States. Of course there are excep- 
tions, and I hope there will be many more ; but the general mass are 
and will be such as I am describing. They live as the moving crea- 
ture upon the face of the earth, as a namesake of my own, of Rich- 
mond, Va., said in an eloquent address at Washington, on this sub- 
ject: "As the moving creature upon the face of the earth, lives for 
mere animal indulgence, and this must, forever, be the condition of 
the free black man in this country, as long as the white man is the 
master and gives laws to this country. The professions are closed to 
him — the pursuits of a mercantile character are equally shut out 
from him. He remains to perform the most humble duties, and under 
circumstances constantly humiliating to every spirit of pride, ambition 
or elevation." These are the people upon whom we are to act through 
this noble Society. A people who are not happy here — who never 
can be happy here, nor as a mass, virtuous and useful citizens amongst 
us — and wliose very presence is an evil — a serious evil to us, but a 
people whose removal to Africa is a blessing, both to them and to us. 

The number of free people of color in the United States, is now 
computed at half a million, and if we fold our hands their natural ii> 



6 

crease and the augmentation of their number by emancipation, will 
soon swell this class of our population, until it can only be told by 
milions. The red man, the black man and the white man, have been 
living face to face for upwards of two centuries, in this Continent. 
It would seem to be the appointment of Providence, that the first 
should pass away from the earth and also, that the time had now come 
when the other two, the free black and white man, should follow the 
example of the Patriach Abraham and his nephew — that they should 
separate, and the one go out on the right hand to the home of his fa- 
thers, and the other to remain to posses the Continent before him. 
But is it feasible ? Is it practicable to remove the people of color to 
Africa, that are free and may be emancipated 1 We answer unhesi- 
tatingly, it is. Minute calculations have often been made, showing 
how it is practicable to remove the whole Aiiican race to the land of 
their fathers, should the nation desire to do so. The estimate, so far 
as time and expense are concerned, is easily made. We have an in- 
stance in modern times, showing how great may be the emigration 
of persons with slight help from the Government. The present year 
(1852,) it is estimated that over 200,000 emigrants have left Great 
Britain. Within five years a million and a half of persons have emi- 
grated from Ireland alone, and chiefly to this country. And all this has 
been done without materially deranging the commerce of any nation. 
It has been done in the order of commercial marine. What then, 
might be done by judicious assistance from our Government, towards 
sending the free blacks to join their brethren in the country of their 
ancestors 1 The same activity that brings the Irish to America in ten 
years, would transport the whole of our negro population to Africa. 
The late Mr. Webster was, I think, the first to suggest that the Gov- 
ernment might appropriate money to aid this work. He said that it 
was within our constitution to do so — it v/as within the powers and 
provisions of the constitution, as a part of our commercial arrange- 
ments. 

The time has come when the two hundred millions of dollars ex- 
pended by this great Government for the naval service, will have to be 
quadrupled, and when these vast expenditures in making preparations 
for war, should be made useful in maintaining the arts of peace, and 
in extending and promoting commerce, and friendly christian inter- 
course among nations. Nothing remains but ibr the Government to 
give its favor and encouragement, to the effort of transporting the free 
negroes to the shores of Africa, and the work will be done. And I 
think the time has fully come for the people of the United States to 
speak out on this matter. The Treasury is overflowing, peace and 
prosperity crown us with blessings, such as only God's most favored 
creatures in this world of sin can enjoy. 

While we have steamships connecting the Continent of Europe 
with America, and are sending out expeditions to Behering's straits, the 
Chinese seas and Japan, and are exploring the Amazon, the La Plata, 
and the great rivers and empires of the earth are opening up to trade, 
surely we should not forget Africa, The same ocean that sweeps the 



shores of Europe, sweeps also the shores of Africa and America, and 
the same interests and results are to be effected by commerce with 
Africa, that are to be found in commerce with Asia. 

The emigration of the free born and emancipated blacks to Africa, 
is a work of common interest to the whole Union, and to every State 
in the Union. The free States do not wish to have them, and it is 
not proper for them to dwell in any considerable numbers in the slave 
States. It is a work, then, of paramount importance to us, to send 
them to Africa as fast as they are prepared to go, and Liberia is pre- 
pared to receive them. In this enterprise we bury all party feeling 
in politics — all little jealousy and sectarian dogmas. 

Men of the highest sanctity of character and splendor of talent, 
who have been and now are burning and shining lights on the bench, 
at the Bar, in the Senate and in the Pulpit, have been and are the 
friends of this cause. And why should not the sympathy and contri- 
butions of the friends of the black man, at the North and in Europe, 
flow in this channel ? Why should Glasgow, and Liverpool, and 
Boston, be raised to magnificence and wealth in part, in the first in- 
stant by the slave trade, and subsequently by trade in slave labor pro- 
ducts, and not give of their imperial wealth to transport the black man 
to Africa? What vast multitudes of free j)eople could have been taken 
en to Liberia and made confortable there, by the money that has been 
given for the last twenty years to Abolition Societies, presses, lec- 
turers and novel writers. There is not a doubt of the praclicableness 
of transporting all the free blacks of this country to Africa, and then 
the increase of the slave population, if it should be agreed that it was 
wisest and best to do so ; and then, as soon as the existing generation 
should die off", not a black man would be found on American soil. 
The plan of gradual emancipation and emigration, is the only one 
that can be thought of for a moment. Perhaps the germ of what 
could be done by States, is seen in Mr, Clay's will concerning his 
slaves. 

Secondly. — Let us now consider the emigration of the free born 
emancipated people of color, from this country to Africa, and see 
how ?uch a result would allect that vast Continent. Poor, bleeding 
Africa, for centuries her weeds of mourning have never been laid 
aside. Her cheeks have never been free from tears. 

"The Niobe of nations — there she stands! Childless and tearless 
in her voiceless wo ! " What, then, will the planting of free people 
of color from America upon her shores, do for her welfare ? 

First. — It is the only effectual and permanent remedy for the slave 
trade. 

At an early day, the benevolent of this country and of Great Bri- 
tain contemplated measures for the suppression of the African slave 
trade. The Government of the United States first j^rohibited the im- 
portation of slaves into this country, and declared the slave trade to 
be piracy and punishable by death. In 1791 the British Parliament 
investigated the subject and collected evidence for ulterior action, and 
at length passed an act prohibiting the importation of slaves into any 



•8 

of their West India possessions, after the 1st of March, 1808, Spain 
also, nominally agreed to put a stop to this odious trafic. And it was 
supposed, or at least hoped, that the decisive blow was struck — that 
the day-spring of Africa's redemption had visited her. But it was a 
mistake. Mere legislation and parliament resolutions could not prevail 
over the savage's thirst for articles of European manufacture, nor over 
the cupidity of nominal christians. And in the face of the most strin- 
gent govornmentai enactments, the slave trade went on and increased 
in horrors and in the number of its victims. Then the expedient of 
armed squadrons on the coast of Africa was resorted to — Great Britain 
and the United States send thither a portion of their naval force, to 
guard the ports and harbors of the Western coasts, from all ingress 
and egress of vessels suspected of being engaged in this inhuman trafic. 
And now it was thought, surely the British lion and the Ame- 
rican eagle will protect the coves and the rivers of Africa, from the 
approach of the slavers. But again the hopes of the benevolent were 
disappointed. After immense treasure and life were spent, it was 
found that the slave trade still went on with but littie diminution. 
Its bloody crest was still erect and daring, in the face of legislative 
enactments and of the armed squadrons of the two most powerful na- 
tions on earth, hunting it down on every sea. And still it goes on. 
Cuba and Brazil, and probably other marts, are still receptacles of kid- 
napped Africans. And must it be so forever ? Will nations nominally 
christian, in the face of every effort of moral reason and of phy- 
sical force, still furnish instruments to trade in the sinews, flesh and 
souls of their fellow-men ? No, it will not be so forever. At last the 
star of hope begins to appear — it approaches our horizon, and sweeps 
into our field of vision. On the Western coast, a colony of free 
colored people from the United Sates is planted. And there the slave 
trade is suppressed efl'ectually and permanently. There, with noise- 
less and unpretending operation, the great work has been done. And 
should not the analogy of nature, have taught our wise men this 
method of suppressing the abominable trade in human beings ? What 
is more noiseless and unimposing, than light kissing the very lips 
of sleeping infancy, so gentle as not to awake it from its slumbers ; 
and yet, no material agent accomphshes results of such magnitude 
in the physical economy. It is not the thunder and the Hghtning 
— it is not the whirlwind, the avalanche or the earthquake and 
the volcanic eruption, that actuates those great aggregate results, 
which make the earth the store-house of blessings to myriads of sen- 
sitive and intelligent creatures. No : it is the gentle ministry of the 
sunshine, and of the soft and sweetly coming breeze, and of the 
silent dews and the unseen, noiseless warmth that fills the earth with 
the means of existence and of happiness, for her numberless children. 
So, gentlemen, what naval forces and legislative acts could not do, 
the Colony of Liberia has done, on all that coast, where its influence 
prevails, and all that is wanting for the total suppresion of the slave 
trade, is the extension of Liberia along the entire Western coast of 
Africa. 



An armada of all the choicest ships of the line from every nation, 
cannot, effectually and permanently, suppress the slave trade. For it 
cannot extirpate the cupidity of men for great profits, nor take from 
the savage African, his love for the goods of civilized nations. Tliy- 
sical force may restrain partially, the corrupt and greedy destroyers of 
human happiness. But it is not the right kind of instrumentality with 
w^hich to battle successfully, against those evils that excite the depraved 
passions of intelligent, immortal minds. Every principle of sound 
philosophy assures us, that till the exciting causes of the slave trade 
are removed, the effects which they naturally produce cannot cease. 
The only effectual and permanent remedy for this evil, therefore, must 
be one that reaches its origin — that Avill grapple with and destroy the 
causes of its birth. Anything short of this, will be a failure. And 
nothing but the civilization and cliristianization of Africa hersef, 
affoi'ds such a remedy. And how can this ever be done, but by the 
colonizing of free christianized people from the United States, on the 
African shore 1 It is palpable that the civilization of Africa must pro- 
ceed from a cause without herself. History furnishes no instance, of 
a barbarous people left to themselves and without intercourse with 
others, ever becoming civilized. Commerce has done much in civilizing 
men, but it was by introducing the seed from a foreign land. The 
grand law of civilization is, to operate upon the social and political 
condition of a people, through the medium of Model Communities (*) 
planted amongst them. There is no other hope for the barbarous 
tribes of Africa — within herself she has no germ of civilization — it 
must be introduced from abroad. It is also palpable, that the instru- 
ments of introducing this civilization, must be the black man himself. 
None other is fitted mentally, socially or j^liysically for this work. And 
no people of color on this globe, are such fit agents for this work, as 
the free people of color in the United States. No other agents can 
raise the native mind of Africa, without which, nothing permanent can 
be done for that Continent. The minds of the natives must be ele- 
vated, before the capabilities of her soil will ever be called forth. 
Nothing but the extinction of the savage pagan spirit of Africa herself, 
can extinguish the slave trade. This extinction cannot be done by 
anything but by the christianized civilization of Africa, and the best 
known agents ; and indeed the only agents that have been or can be 
found for accomplishing this work, are the free people of color amongst 
us. To save that Continent from the continuation of the slave trade, 
two things must be done. First, the native mind must be enlightened 
and freed fx'om the chains of savageism and superstition ; and secondly, 
the physical resources of that country must be developed, till the wares 
and productions of Europe and America, can be purchased by the 
produce of their soil, and not by their sons and daughters. Can these 
two things be done ? We answer unhesitatingly they can — they are 
now being done. The native mind of Africa is essentially, the same 
with the native mind of any other pagan country. The powerful ap- 

* Rev. Dr. CarroH'e Address. 

2 



10 

pliances of civilization, science and religion, plied long enough, will 
brino- out of the African mind in Africa, substantially what they have 
brouo-ht out of the European or American mind. And as it regards 
the physical resources of Africa, I am firmly persuaded, from the best 
authorities within our reach, that they are amply sufficient to sustain 
twice the number of her present population, in a stafe of advanced 
civilization, refinement and luxury. Africa is not inferior in native 
wealth, to any portion of the globe. She has gold, copper, zinc, silver, 
timber and dye-wood — she is rich in gums, and nuts, and roots, and 
all the fruits of the tropics — she is rich in grains, and every species of 
fowls and animals necessary for food or trade. The London Times 
says : — 

" The natural resources of Liberia are immense, and are steadily 
in process of development. The principal articles of export are ivory, 
palm oil, (of which $150,000 worth was shipped in 1847,) camwood, 
gold dust, &;c. Coffee is indigenous, and of excellent quality, and is 
now being cultivated extensively. It yields more than in the West 
Indies, and the belief is entertained that it may be produced so as to 
compete with slave labor. Sugar also thrives well, but enough only 
is grown for home consumption, and there is no present hope of com- 
peting with Cuba or Brazil. Cocoa has just been introduced, and 
promises well. Cotton, it is expected, will soon become an article of 
export. Indigo, ginger, arrowroot, and various other articles of com- 
merce, likewise grow luxuriantly. Rich mines exist in the country, 
and only requires capital to open them up. 

" The population is upon the whole, well disposed to work, and the 
rate of wages per day is about Is. sterling. It is an extraordinary 
feature of this part of the coast, that horses and other draught animals 
will not live, and hence every kind of transport except that upon the 
rivers, is performed by manual labor. Much of the camwood which 
is exported from Liberia, is brought a distance of 200 miles on men's 
backs. It is seen, however, that this difficulty, which appears a 
great one at first, may have the effect not only of inuring the people 
to labor, but stimulating them to every kind of mechanical contrivance 
by which it may be overcome. The climate of Liberia, although more 
healthy than Sierra Leone, is still deadly to European ; but the im- 
provement it has undergone during the last ten years from the effect 
of clearing, drainage, &:c., is stated to have been most remarkable. 
The colored emigrants from America, who used invariable to suffer 
from fever on their arrival, are now able to go to work at once. The 
duration of life amongst the colonists, is considered to be about the 
same as in England. " 

The inhabitants are assuming the habits of civilized people, and 
are succeeding as agriculturists. Schools are established, to which 
even many natives from the interior send their sons. The London 
Times says also, that out of 70,000 aborigines contiguous to the Ame- 
rican colony, 50,000 can speak the English language, so that one 
can perfectly understand them. And through the influence of Li- 
beria and the colony of Cape Palmas, the London Times says, two 



11 

millions of the natives of the interior, now obtain their supply of 
European goods. In the year 1849, 82 vessels visited Liberia and 
exchanged merchandize for articles of African production, to the 
amount of 8600,U00. 

Abundant lestimony, and especially from the obscrs-ations of the 
Rev. Mr. Gurley, who has visited Liberia, I believe twice, could be 
given if the time allowed, showing the fertility of the soil and the 
vast resources of that Continent, awaiting the enterprize of the civi- 
lized and colored man. 

Let me repeat then, there is no practicable or effectual and per- 
manent remedy for the slave trade, but the christianization of Africa. 
If the whole coast was covered with such a population as that of 
Liberia, there would be no need of treaties with England, France and 
the United States, to put down the slave trade. To annihilate the 
slave trade has been the earnest endeavor of England and the United 
States, for a number of years. Great Britain is said to have 
spent more than $150,000,000 in attempting to colonize negroes in 
Africa. But she has failed, signally failed ; and she has failed in her 
schemes in the West Indies. And the French have failed. Jamaica 
and Hayti are melancholy instances of premature and improper at- 
tempts to change the condition of African negroes. Great Britain has 
failed in SieiTa Leone, while the American Colonization has succeeded. 
Great Britain has failed because she worked with the soldier and the 
bayonet; while the Colonization Society has worked, not by armed 
vessels and troops of soldiei-s, but by schools and churches, and by an 
appeal to reason and acts of justice and deeds of benevolence — by 
workshops, axes, spelling books, and other "Yankee notions," and by 
inspiring the black man himself with lioiie and self-respect — by ele- 
vating him to the rank of an intelligent, free and independent man. 
Great Britain had not failed on the African coast, if she had had peo- 
ple of color like those that you send to Liberia from this country — 
christianized people, and having some knowledge of free institutions. 

Sccondlij. — Another great blessing of the emigration of our free 
people of color to Africa, is that they carry with them the Gospel. 
This is the only practicable means that presents itself to the pious for 
the christianization and civilization of that vast Continent. How else 
can we hope to emancipate one hundred and fifty millions of people 
on that Continent, from ignorance, superstition and paganism ? What 
enterprise is more grand and noble, and worthy of our thoughts, 
prayers and contributions, than the attempt to bring Africa under the 
influence of the Gospel ? A wise and good man once said, if he were 
sure that he would die to-morrow, he Avould plant a tree to-day, 
whose shade or fruit might bless the coming generation. This man 
had a soul truly great, and in the likeness of its Creator. He looked 
forward to the future. 

And if we look to the future of this grand movement — and seeing 
how the feeble beginning has grown into an independent Republic, 
with 700 miles of sea coast, and territory sufficient to accomodate all 
the black population of these United States, and countr}^ capable of 



12 

raising all the leading and great products of the tropical climates, 
cotton, corn, rice, sugar and coffee ; who among us can look to the 
future of this grand movement? Who can read the microscope or 
prophecy, from the configuration of the planets which presided over 
the birth of the free, independent and christianized Republic of Li- 
beria ; what shall be its history, as it sweeps onward through the track 
of time, enlightening and redeeming that vast Continent ] There- 
turning of the negroes of this Continent to their fatherland, has made 
Africa the "land of promise" to the black man, as this country has 
become to the European Continent. 

And when England asks in time to come, as she has often done 
heretofore, and not without a sneer, what has America done for tJie 
negro ? We may gladly say, look to Liberia and see what America 
has done for the negro, for Africa and for Christ. See there the 
only country on the globe in which the negro is a man, in full pos- 
session of all the rights of a man. See there a Colony of intelligent, 
moral, industrious people, grown already into a nation, carrying the 
English language, and science, and commerce, and arts, and the glad 
tidings of the Gospel and of republican liberties, into the darkest re- 
gions of heathenism and slavery. And if fifty years hence England 
dares to ask again, what has America done for the negro, then all 
Africa will respond, saying : "The Continent which England once 
robbed and ravaged, and from which she tore our bleeding sires, now 
smiles and rejoices in the light shed upon it by the sons of those 
exiles, returned to us ladened with Heaven's best blessings, through 
the christian intelligence and philantrophy of America." 

And shall wenot, gentlemen, see hereafter the commerce of this grow- 
ing and great people, exercising a beneficial influence upon our own 
taking away from us our spare manufactures and our spare produc- 
tions — while we receive from them in return what they can furnish us? 
If we could forget the greater points of this great subject, and for a 
moment make it a question of dollars and cents, it were easy to show 
that our interests may be greatly promoted by planting the free black 
on the shores of Africa, and increasing his wants for our supplies, and 
his capacity to pay us in return, by raising what Africa alone can 
furnish for our market. 

Lord Brougham said long ago, that every tree felled in the forest 
of the Mississippi, sets a loom going in England. It is an acknow- 
ledged fact, that it is of great importance, commercially, to Great Bri- 
tain to help off to her colonies a large number of her population, for 
thereby she gets rid of the expense of maintaining them as paupers, or 
of convicting them of crime, and thereby also, they become able to pay 
her for manufactured goods which they could not do at home. It is of 
vast importance for us to secure a controlling share of the commerce 
of Liberia. As a scheme of philanthropy as well as of commerce, and a 
preparation to prevent war, it seems to me exceedingly desirable that 
the Ebony hne of steamers, contemplated in a bill before Congress 
some two years ago, introduced by Mr. Stanton, of Tenn., should be 
established. 



13 

England has acknowledged the independence of Liberia, and why 1 
Because it was to her advantage. Trade, bargain making, commerce, 
money and comfort, and comfort by money, are the great attributes of 
an anglo-Saxon. Every spot on the face of the earth that can afford 
to pay for his calicoes and his wares, he will visit, and he will settle. 
It is trade — it is the prospect of gain by selling the manufactures of 
Great Britain, that made Queen Victoria shake hands across the wide 
ocean, with the naked young vagabond who is called the King of 
Musquitia. And why has Great Britain done, what we have not 
done .^ Doubtles there wei'e other motives. We do not exclude 
benevolence from the people of the British empire — there are many 
most benevolent, liberal and pious people there, who are praying, la- 
boring and giving freely for the good of their fellowmen. But doubt- 
less, one of the motives of the British Government for acknowledging 
the idependence of Liberia, and in showing her so much favor, was to 
get a favorable market for her manufactures, and to have a chance of 
penetrating Africa through her rivers. England is not to be blamed 
for this ; I only refer to this act of hers, as a proof of the profound 
sagacity and able statesmanship of her premier. And in this she is 
worthy of our imitation. It is due to us as a commercial people, and 
as the founders and supporters of this Colony, until it has now 
taken its place amongst the States of the earth as an independent 
nation, to acknowledge its independence and stand fast by its growth 
and prosperity, and seize on its commerce by all fair and honorable 
means. 

Finally. — It may be asked, is there any sufficient ground on which 
to hope, that the African race is capable of receiving, appreciating 
and perpetuating among themselves, the blessings of free institutions 
and of Christianity 1 

The history of the black man, it is true, has every where, been that 
of slavery, of degradation and of ignorance, even in Africa itself. 
There for ages, and still he holds his life and all that is dear to him, at 
the will of a savage, despotic master, except where the influence of co- 
lonization protects him, and in the volume which Providence has open- 
ed to us after the lapse of thousand of years, we read that such was 
his condition centuries ago. The monuments of Egypt and of Africa 
tell us that the black man was a slave — emphatically a slave under 
the mighty dynasties that held the destinies of the world in their 
hands, from the earliest days of the mighties empires of past ages. 
Perhaps no instance can be found, on these monuments, in which the 
black man does not appear, bearing about with him the certain marks 
of bondage or of subjection. If the African has always been in 
ignorance, degradation and superstition, is there any hope for him? Is 
he not like the giant of old, spoken of in classic fable, upon whom 
Etna was placed — whose breast is so bruised — his limbs so paralized 
by the long pressure of the superincumbent weight, that he cannot 
erect himself as a man, and take any place in the way of advance- 
ment and civilization 1 No : it is not thus with the African. There 
is a light brighter than that of reason — there is the light of the Gos- 



14 

pel, whose rays penetrate far into the future. And under its genial 
influence, see what has already been done in Africa. Behold the 
Liberian Republic. Perhaps there is not, upon the face of the earth, 
a Government whose constitution is more liueral, more enlightened, 
or more judicious ; having in it the elements of greater permanence, 
than the Republic of Liberia. It is the black man's Republic. It is 
not the Avhite man ruling over him, as in Sierra Leone, nor is it the 
black man forced on by the white man as in British West Indies. It 
is the black man governing himself — governing himself according to 
written statutes — governing himself w^ith enlightened views of his own 
nnture, duties and destiny. 

We cannot but admire the wisdom and goodness of God, that or- 
dered the black man to be educated here, for his career in the home 
of his ancestors ; educated here wliere constitutional rights are 
thoroughly understood, where the rights of self government are so 
clearly illustrated, and the success of our blessed institutions have 
shown that freedom is the best heritage of man. How wonderful are 
the counsels of the Most High ! For nearly two centuries, amidst the 
darkness and oppression of her exiled sons, €^od has been silently and 
unseen, just as he forms the diamond in nature, elaborating the rich 
germ of civilization, that now begins to sparkle as a brilliant on Afri- 
ca's bleeding bosom. 

The enterprise is no longer doubtful. An independent Republic, 
and acknowledged as such by some of the greatest powers on earth, 
has grown up on the coast of Africa under the fostering care of the 
American Colonization Society. Public opinion is fast settling down, 
not only upon the practicability of the redemption of Africa from 
heathenism, and the total suppression of the slave trade, by the tran- 
sportation of the free people of color from the United states to Africa, 
but upon the necessity and importance of doing so. The success of 
past years should stimulate the friends of the cause to renewed efforts 
in time to come. The planting of colonies of free people of color, 
who have received more or less education — more or less sentiments 
and habits, fitting them to build up free institutions and to sustain the 
Gospel, is the only hope of Afiica. They suffer comparatively little 
from the climate, while the whites fall victims. It is to the free 
blacks of Liberia, then, that the world looks for the teachers, ex- 
plorers, traders, geographers, missionaries and preachers of the Gos- 
pel, by whom Africa is to be reclaimed from the physical and moral 
waste and deserts, in which it has lain for ages. The tree has been 
planted which shall wave its branches, laden with celestial fruits, over 
that Continent, for ages to come. In the language of the sublime 
Psalmist, the handful of corn is in the earth upon the top of the 
mountains, and the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. And 
the mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills 
shall flourish in righteousness. 

The aspects and operations of this Society, are of universal interest 
to the philanthropist. It promises to discharge a moral duty of the 
most imperative character, and to achieve a work of great, compre- 



15 

liensive, and ever-during benevolence. It spans the Atlantic and 
encircles in its wide embrace a Continent of heathens, and three mil- 
lions of slaves, and half a million of free people of color. It is an en- 
terprise in harmony with the stupendous movements of our age. It 
opens up to the colored population of this country, a career of exten- 
sive usefulness, a destiny of honor and exaltation, almost without a 
parallel in history. They are called upon to go forth and to subdue 
a mighty Continent, and bestow upon it the arts of peace and the in- 
stitutions of Christianity. How different is their return from their 
forefathers' departure 1 The descendants of those who were torn 
away as slaves, return as the heralds and missionaries of freedom and 
of Christianity to their father-land. 

Let us seriously inquire, then, what is our duty as patriotic men — 
what is our duty as men who are, and who profess to be humane and 
intelligent ? What is our duty as christian men, to Africa and half a 
million of so called, free people of color, who are amongst us occu- 
pying, aiid must here continue to occupy a degraded, social, intellec- 
tual and moral position ? The motives, fellow-citizens, to exertion in 
this cause, are stupendous. The objects contemplated are magnifi- 
cently grand. The moral bearings of the enterprise, are sublime 
beyond a parallel. Our eflbrts and contributions should then be great 
in proportion to the magnitude and sublimity of the cause. 

I read some months since, of a terrible gale in one of the harbors 
of the Chinese seas. In this harbor were lying at anchor the vessels 
of all nations, and among them the United States sloop of war Ply- 
mouth — a noble name, and of good omen. Every vessel broke its 
cable, but one. The tornado tossed them about, and dashed them 
against each other, and bi-oke them like egg shells. But amid this 
terrific scene of destruction, our Government vessel held fast to its 
moorings and escaped unharmed. Now, who made the links of that 
cable, ihat the tempest could not rend — whose work was it, that saved 
property and human life from ruin, otherwise inevitable % O ! could 
that workman have beheld the spectacle, and heard the raging of the 
elements, and seen the other vessels as they were dashed to pieces, 
and scattered abroad, while the violence of the tempest wreaked 
itself upon bis own work in vain, would he not have had the most 
ample and purest reward for the fidelity of his labor? And so, when 
the dark daj^s of Europe come, and they are near at hand; when 
kingdoms and empires shall be crushed beneath the convulsions and 
the righteous retributions of Heaven, upon centuries of wrong and 
oppression, and when amidst the upheaving of the earth, the self-gov- 
erned Republic of Liberia, a Republic of free black people shall stand 
out in bold relief, and out-live all the present dynasties of Europe, 
will it not be asked then, who founded that Republic, whose work is 
it '? And then, if the holy, wise and benevolent founders of the 
Colony of Liberia, who toiled on amidst so much opposition and with 
great sacrifice, and some of whom laid dov/n their lives in its behalf ; 
if they could then look out from their celestial mansions, upon this 
home of freemen, and see its beneficent example, blessing, not only 



16 

Africa, but all of Europe, would they not feel abundant satisfaction, 
and more than a thousand fold compensated for all their labors. "It 
there be a thread that determines the place of every bead in the neck- 
lace of individual and national destiny, then, when Africa at last ex- 
changes her dark zone for a girdle of jewels, glittering with the light 
of science and religion, then it will be found that colonization has 
spun the silken thread which binds them all in beauteous order." I 
doubt not that there lie, wrapped up in the folds of an eventful future 
in the Republic of liberia, the influences that will most powerfully 
affect the welfare of the whole African race. 

I do not doubt but that the whole Continent of Africa will be rege- 
nerated, and I believe the Republic of Liberia will be the great 
instrument in the hands of God, in working out this regeneration. 
The Colony of Liberia has succeeded, better than the Colony of Ply- 
mouth did for the same period of time. And yet, in that little com- 
pany which was wafted across the mighty ocean in the Maij Jlower, 
we see the germs of this already colossal nation, whose feet are in the 
tropics, while her head reposes upon the snows of Canada. Her right 
hand she stretches over the Atlantic, feeding the millions of the old 
world and beckoning them to her shores, as a refuge from famine and 
oppression, and at the same time she stretches forth her left hand to 
the Islands of the Pacific and to the old empires of the East, full of 
the blessings of the arts and sciences, of trade, civilization and pure 
religion. And does not faith tell us that the Lone star, that our ex- 
ample and benevolence has made to appear in the very central regions 
of African barbarism, shall become a mighty constellation, whose 
glorious light shall beam along the dark valleys of the Niger and the 
Senegal, and make the mountains of the moon reflect the glory of the 
Sun of righteousness, and that Africa redeemed, and having placed 
the topmost jewel in the crown of her great deliverer, shall sit with 
Europe, Asia and America, clothed and in their right minds, at the 
feet of Jesus of Nazareth ? 




















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